Official MLBlog of the Kansas City Royals front office.

Hochevar Spends Eventful Day at The K

Well, it’s official! Luke Hochevar is a member of the Kansas City Royals. Luke signed his first Major League contract today at around 4 p.m. with his family in attendance. He had quite the entourage today with his parents (Brian and Carmen), siblings (sister Brittany, brother Dylan) and girlfriend (Ashley). His pitching coach from the University of Tennessee Fred Corral and his family were in attendance as well as his agent Scott Boras with fellow associates.

After Luke got done signing his contract and posing for some pictures (see below), he held a press conference along with General Manager Dayton Moore, Senior-Director Scouting Deric Ladnier and Boras. The press conference was carried live on Metro Sports and royals.com. Luke then had his first official mug shot taken in a Royals uniform wearning No. 19. His reason for No. 19? He said he wore it at the University of Tennessee, but more importantly because it signifies one good inning, nine times. By the way, coach Billy Doran is currently wearing No. 19.

Luke then stopped by manager Buddy Bell’s office for a quick visit before heading to the dugout suite on the first base side to spend the rest of the game with his family.

Luke is truly a tremendous individual and it will be exciting to watch him progress in the minor leagues. He is scheduled to throw a bullpen session for the staff tomorrow morning at Kauffman Stadium and will then leave for Surprise, Arizona for several days of conditioning. Following his short stay in Surprise, he will join Burlington, the Royals Class A affiliate. A pretty exciting day. I’ve included some pictures highlighting Luke’s day. Click on the pictures for a larger view.

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9 Comments

The Royals are demolished by the Twins and all you can talk about is Luke’s visit with his family at the K. How nice…

How about discussing the lack of respect for the fans who pay all your salaries? How about discussing the product that you are putting on the field or the lack their of?

How about discussing the new poll on the website that has already moved on to 2007 forget this season?

Do you really expect fans to keep coming back game after game, setting in 100 plus degree heat, and paying outrageous concession stand prices to watch this team? If you think 10,000 fans is a poor turn out just wait until next year. Renovated stadium or not… you won’t get fans in the seats with the organization you have now.

Bell’s comment about “just putting pieces up there until some stick”, shows the utter disregard for the fans. The time for experimenting was in Spring Training. The fans are now paying to watch these games and they deserve better.

My final question is for Mr. Moore… Why weren’t your super bullpen/starters trades given a chance to start in Omaha and get their feet under them and then bring them up to KC? Is that all we are a bunch of test “dummys” for your blunders? We deserve better.

I am sure that no one from the Royals organization will want to tackle the frustrations the fans are feeling watching the third 100 game losing season come to pass. No wonder the Twins fans outnumbered the Royals fans at today’s game.

“glou1898″ you’re right on several points. BUT what this team has been guilty of in the past, is what has caused the present:
1. Drafting by signability. The team wasn’t willing to spend the bucks on the highest, best draft picks.

2. Draft picks like Colt Griffin, that were Busts. This is the fault of a lack of emphasis on scouting.

3. Racing players to the major leagues. It takes a few years for drafted players to develop. If you race them up you have problems like what Zack Greinke had. Teahen is another good example. So Drafting a Hochevar, then throwing him into the majors screws him up down the road. Which is why we have a screwed up pitching staff now.

4. It takes a few years to turn a team around from a 100+ losses to 90+ wins. Mr. Moore hasn’t been on the job long enough for ANYONE to say he’s blundered or not.

5. You seem to forget Spring training. A lot of the players that were there, went on the DL. Buddy Bell can only shoot the bullets he’s got. Over the next couple of seasons, those bullets will change. Some will be gone, that’s obvious. Some will get better. But it will change. This year is a loss, there’s nothing to be gained by impatience.

Finally, what do you expect the front office people to say? If you really check the website and listen to past interviews they tell you, they know this team isn’t playing well. Sure, they’re going to try to put a smiley face on it, they should! Are they sorry that the team is playing so poorly, Sure they are! But what fixes that is trading for TALENT, and developing that talent properly. They’ll be firing and hiring at the minor league level to get better instructional people, we may not hear about it much, but they will be, and probably are.

Screw this year, it’s lost…….. Let’s be a little more patient and see what happens next year. I was here in 68, loosing baseball is better than no baseball at all!

Oh one other point, the Front office folks DO pay attention to this blog. They know you are unhappy with the play of the team.

Ah, Bowtech, I love your enthusiasm and your never-ending positive attitude, but I have to disagree with almost all of your points.
This is a MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL team. Period. There should not be any excuses for not performing, now or in the past. Also, it is unacceptable to say ‘Screw this year’.

Do you think that is the attitude that the players should take? Of course not. The job of every single person on that team should be to win every single night. Anything else should not be tolerated.

We here in KC have become SO used to saying “Give them time, Give them time”. THAT is the actual root of ALL of these problems.

While I know you have good intentions and are trying to stay positive, I have heard Mr. Glass SWEAR that the issues that you bring up (signability, not spending enough in the minors, etc) were absolutely not reasons for the lack of success. Remember? In the press conference he said he had ‘no idea how we got here;.

You may be right on your points above, but I have not heard one person on the team state that these were the issues, and that from now on they would not be a problem.

The Royals keep whining about the lack of money we have, when we could have a whole lot more dough if they put a halfway decent team on the field!
Do they think anyone is going to pay money to watch this team??

There arent many people that want to sit and watch this team for the next two years so quit tellin us to wait for the future! Get a good team now!!

Is there a better team than the Royals to play if you need to clinch? Ask the Tigers and Twins. At least the Royals roll over equally for everyone. Except the Red Sox. Go figure.

Gee, I am so excited that the Royals are looking ahead. Not to building a better team, but to their 2007 tv commercials. I can’t wait for you to tell me something exciting and motivating like you are Kansas City’s baseball team. Some might dispute the “baseball team” part of that statement.

How many times can you dredge up George Brett? And now even Tom Watson has no shame.

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